Acupuncture is well-known for its ability to modulate pain. In fact, a previous study even found that acupuncture beats morphine for pain. People with arthritis, bad backs and knees, headaches and other painful conditions often find great relief when they undergo this type of treatment.
But most people don’t know is that acupuncture can also be an effective treatment for gastrointestinal issues. This includes digestive concerns such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gastritis and functional dyspepsia. Acupuncture can also help relieve symptoms of nausea, bloating and abdominal joint.
In particular, there are two acupoints commonly used to harmonize the spleen and stomach with reliable clinical efficiency. These are called Gongsun (SP4) and Nei Guan (PC6).
The SP4 point is used to regulate the intestines, while the PC6 point is associated with the relief of nausea, motion sickness and upset stomach. And treating these two points with acupuncture is actually shown to outperform mosapride, a drug that increases the process of gastric emptying and prevents reflux.
In a recent study, one group of patients with functional dyspepsia was treated with acupuncture at acupoints SP4 and PC6. A second group, the control group, received mosapride.
Clinical symptoms, electrogastrography measures and Functional Dyspepsia Diseases Quality of Life (FDDQL) scores were recorded in the two groups before and after treatment.
For the next 30 days, acupuncture treatments occurred twice a day at 30 minutes per session among the study group. During that time, patients in the control group took 5 mg of mosapride three times daily.
At the end of the study period, electrogastrography results were significantly different between the two groups. There were also differences in the post-treatment FDDQL subscores between the treatment and control group.
While some may argue that the results of the above study were a result of the placebo effect, additional studies show otherwise.
For example, a 2012 study out of China compared the effects of genuine acupuncture treatments against sham treatments. It also compared both of these against the efficacy of the drug itopride. A total of 712 patients with functional dyspepsia were included in the study.
All groups had an improvement in dyspepsia symptoms and quality of life scores at the end of the treatment. However, the overall response rate was significantly higher in acupuncture group (70.69%) and lower in sham acupuncture group (34.75%).
The difference in symptoms and quality of life were also higher in the acupuncture group than in the itopride group.
by Dana Nicholas
http://www.liveinthenow.com/article/acupuncture-outperforms-drugs-digestive-relief
